“This is nonsense. We don’t have those kinds of people here. We don’t have any gays. If there are any take them to Canada. Praise be to God. Take them far from us so we don’t have them at home. To purify our blood, if there are any here take them.

“They are devils. They are for sale. They are not people. God damn them for what they are accusing us of. They will have to answer to the Almighty for this.”

In June the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution condemning the violence and persecution against gay men in Chechnya, On October 30, 2017 the U.S. Senate followed suit.

S. Res. 211 “calls on Chechen officials to immediately cease the abduction, detention, and torture of individuals on the basis of their actual or suspected sexual orientation, and hold accountable all those involved in perpetrating such abuses.” It also calls on the U.S. government to “continue to condemn the violence and persecution in Chechnya.”

The Canadian federal government has been secretly spiriting gay Chechen men from Russia to Canada, under a clandestine program. About a third of those who were being sheltered in Russian safe houses – are now in Toronto and other Canadian cities

Sources estimate that Chechen authorities have rounded up and detained, tortured and in some cases have murdered hundreds of gay men in secret prisons including the recent revelation that Russian pop-singer Zelimkhan Bakaev was arrested, tortured and then murdered for being gay.

His body at the writing of this post has still not been found.

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Will Kohler is one of America's best known LGBT historians, He is also a a accredited journalist and the owner of Back2Stonewall.com.
A longtime gay activist Will fought on the front lines of the AIDS epidemic with ACT-UP and continues fighting today for LGBT acceptance and full equality.
Will’s work has been referenced on such notable media venues as BBC News, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The Daily Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter, and Raw Story.
Back2Stonewall has been recently added to the Library of Congress' LGBTQ+ Studies Web Archive.
Mr. Kohler is available for comment, interviews and lectures on LGBT History.
Contact: Will@Back2Stonewall.com